the rise and fall bollard!
Eurotunnel Calais
Eurotunnel boarding at Calais
Eurotunnel
Incheville to Calais
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Day 18
The After breakfast we service the camper, emptying the grey water and cassette. Now we have to negotiate that rise and fall bollard to get out!
We approach the dreaded bollard, this time Alan is driving, so Gill directs him to within a few inches of the bollard. Gill puts the code in the machine and wait . . . nothing.
Gill puts the code in again and try pressing various buttons . . . nothing. She presses ‘clear’ and put the code in again . . . still nothing. The bollard just sits there.
Gill walks over to Alan who is still in the camper and we walk back to the pay station and look at it and discuss what we should be doing. While we are stood there (at least a minute or two . . . ) the bollard just suddenly disappears into the ground. Gill whoops and run to the camper, jumps in and drives out quick, while the opportunity is available. These entry and exit bollards are always temperamental!
On our way, we return by the D2, a small and narrow road that winds its way through the villages to the long inlet at St Valery sur Somme. We take the D940 and cross the Somme river and associated wetlands along the estuary. Onto the D1001 at Ponthoile, through Vron to Nampont, all very run-down villages that have seen better days.
At Nampont we take the D901 past Montreuil and Samur and stop at the small village near Hedin l’Abbé for some lunch. We park by the church and watch the rain sweep over in waves in the strong wind. What a day. Backon the D901, south of Boulogne we finally join the A16 (no longer paege) and drive the remaining 21 miles to Calais.
We fill with diesel and park on Auchan carpark, watching the black guys walking in pairs and trying all the doors and lockers of the parked motorhomes (about 8 of us). We decide that one of should stay in the camper and the other go and shop for wine, serrano ham and cheeses. It is pouring with rain, Alan goes to shop and Gill stays to guard the Hymer.
Gill sat in the front seat checking email, a maroon colour, UK registered coach drives up and parks a few spaces in front of me. It is empty (no pasengers), the driver gets out, stretches his legs, walks up and down and gets back in. I watch in amazement as two of the black guys saunter up to the coach as bold as brass, one of them takes his coat off and lays it on the wet ground, lies on it on his back and shuffles under the coach, completely under, the other walks on.
Later he comes back and joins his friend under the coach, they are there for a while. I wonder what to do but decide as a lone woman I should sit tight. I take a couple of photographs. The boys are under there for a while, then one shuffles out and walks away. The coach driver gets out and looks under his coach, pauses and looks again, and gets back in the coach, the second young man shuffles out and saunters off, again as if it’s the most normal thing in the world to roll out from under a coach.
Within minutes four gendarmes appear, the coach driver gets out and they talk, pointing and looking under the coach. I get out and join them, they speak good English. They have a good look but the boys are long gone. Nothing to do… no crime committed… no evidence of boys or anything else. We thank the gendarmes, we all learn from this.
Alan returns with shopping and Gill tells him what has happened, we agree that it was good for one of us to stay, as we know now what these young guys get up to.
We drive the 7 or 8 minutes to the Aire at Gravelot, it is pouring with rain again. We park up overlooking the scrub on the old car park, there are eleven campers already parked here, it is 4.00pm. We sit and rest, Alan reads his book and Gill catches up with her journal, the rain is still heavy. At 6.00pm, we open a bottle of Roche Mazet sparkling wine, it tastes of dessert apples, and we drink it with crevette (big prawns in their shells) that Alan bought from Auchan. Later, the sun comes out and there is a clear sky, we eat stir fry and watch the setting sun and reflect on our three weeks away: not the best of weather, this week has rained every day, but some interesting visits in Normandy and Rouen in the first week, a relaxing second week in the Lot valley and gorge between Cahors and Cajarc.
Back to England tomorrow morning.
Summary of motorhome journey
Total miles |
mpg | average speed mph |
hours driven |
82.7 | 31.6 | 27 | 3:01 |
Totals for this journey |
|||
1752.3 | 30.5 | 31 | 55:27 |